An art gallery, a railway headquarters, a court complex. These might sound like ordinary addresses in Delhi. Yet behind some of their gates stand buildings created for maharajas and princely rulers.
Around India Gate, names such as Jaipur House, Bikaner House and Baroda House preserve the identities of the royal families who established residences here. Their buildings have since taken on new roles, becoming part of the capital’s cultural and working life.
Their stories include a royal ballroom filled with office desks, a palace remembered as a bus terminus, and a garden where world leaders paused for tea. These buildings have survived through changes of government, ownership and purpose. Looking at what happened inside them makes their architecture much more interesting.
Once you know their stories, a familiar journey through central Delhi begins to look different.
Why Are There So Many Royal Residences Around India Gate?
When the British announced the transfer of their capital from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911, the planning of New Delhi included a prestigious area for princely residences. Known as Princes’ Park, it surrounded what is now the India Gate hexagon.
Rulers from different princely states established impressive Delhi addresses here, close to the ceremonial and political centre of British India. The official history of Bikaner House explains how this neighbourhood took shape.
These were residences in the capital, rather than the principal seats of kingdoms elsewhere in India. That distinction explains their names: Jaipur House is in Delhi, but its name records the royal household it represented.
Most of the buildings discussed here belong to the twentieth century. Their domes and sandstone can make them seem much older, especially when compared with modern office blocks. They also reveal different tastes. Some rulers favoured European forms; other residences combined these with Indian decorative traditions. Even within the area called Lutyens’ Delhi, individual buildings had different architects.
1. Jaipur House: A Royal Residence That Opened Its Doors to Art
Near India Gate, Jaipur House was built in the 1930s as a residence for the Maharaja of Jaipur. The Museums of India portal credits architect Charles Geoffrey Blomfield and describes its butterfly-shaped plan: wings spread out from a central domed section.
Its low dome is worth a second look. NGMA’s architectural account connects its form to the Buddhist stupa at Sanchi. The building brings together several influences, including Indian architectural traditions and Art Deco details. Notice how the broad silhouette and the smaller decorative details draw on different traditions.
The Sculpture Exhibition That Began a New Chapter
On 29 March 1954, Vice-President S. Radhakrishnan inaugurated the National Gallery of Modern Art here. Its opening exhibition focused on sculpture, bringing together artists including Ramkinkar Baij, D. P. Roy Chowdhury and Sankho Chaudhuri.
Herman Goetz, the art historian who helped establish the gallery, had previously worked at the Baroda Museum. That is a pleasing connection between this new national institution and another city’s museum history. The Museums of India account records both his role and the inaugural exhibition.
Imagine the change in the rooms: spaces associated with a royal residence becoming places where visitors could encounter modern Indian sculpture. That transformation gives a visit another subject to consider alongside the artworks—the changing relationship between art, its patrons and its public.
The museum has also grown beyond the original house. Three new blocks were added in 2009, according to NGMA, so the galleries visitors experience today include both historic and later architecture. As you move around the campus, notice where the intimate scale of the residence gives way to spaces designed specifically for exhibitions.
2. Bikaner House: From Princely Hospitality to Contemporary Culture
Bikaner House opened on 18 February 1929, with a reception for visiting royalty and dignitaries. Built during Maharaja Ganga Singh’s reign, it combines Western architectural influences with Rajput details, including its chhatris—small domed pavilions.
The house also witnessed political discussions. Its official history records meetings among princely states about accession to the Indian Union in the period before independence. A reception room could serve more than a social purpose: this was an address where the future of the states was discussed.
The Palace People Knew as a Bus Terminus
One of its most surprising chapters came later. After independence, the Government of Rajasthan used the property for administration, while many Delhi residents came to associate Bikaner House with buses departing for Rajasthan.
That everyday identity almost hid the building’s royal history. A traveller could know the address well as the starting point of a journey without thinking of it as a palace at all. The New Indian Express’s account of its restoration describes this period and the work that followed.
Restoration led by conservation architect Abha Narain Lambah helped return attention to the building, which reopened as a cultural venue on 18 November 2015. In 2023, the project received an Award of Merit in the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.
A Ballroom Still Made for Gathering
Inside, the ballroom’s timber floor, chandeliers, tall ceiling and arches preserve a sense of occasion. Its present-day uses include exhibitions, performances, talks and book launches. A room designed for gathering still brings people together, although the guests and conversations have changed.
There is a small conservation detail to notice, too. The venue’s official guidance requires ballroom displays to use freestanding panels because it is part of a heritage structure. The way an exhibition is installed can tell you something about the care needed to keep an old building in use.
3. Baroda House: A Palace at the Heart of the Railways
Baroda House offers one of the most unexpected transformations: a royal residence that became the headquarters of a railway zone.
Designed by Edwin Lutyens for the Maharaja of Baroda, the house is dated to 1936 in INTACH Delhi’s architectural account. Its appearance reflects a specific preference: the Gaekwad wanted a predominantly Anglo-Saxon architectural character, with relatively few overtly Indian elements.
A Maharaja’s Taste, Written in Stone
That preference challenges the expectation that every Indian royal residence will be covered in elaborate regional ornament. Here, broad windows, restrained columns and arcaded verandahs help create a more European character. Yet INTACH identifies an Indian reference in the dome’s resemblance to the Sanchi stupa.
The combination is the interesting part. A royal patron could choose an international architectural language while retaining selected references to Indian forms. These houses were expressions of personal taste as well as rank.
The layout also rewards attention: angled wings lead away from a recessed central porch, while the interior plan includes a circular salon and courtyards. Those are clues to the domestic and ceremonial life for which the house was designed.
Today, it houses Northern Railway’s headquarters. Its name still refers to the former princely state, while its working identity belongs to the railway network.
There is a quiet pleasure in that change of scale: a residence associated with one ruling household now accommodates the administration of a public institution serving many travellers. The office sign is part of the building’s history, just as much as the dome above it.
4. Patiala House: A Royal Address Becomes a Place of Justice
For many people, the name Patiala House immediately brings court proceedings to mind. Its earlier life belonged to the royal family of Patiala.
The site was allotted to Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, and the palace was constructed by his son, Maharaja Yadavindra Singh. This history is discussed in the Delhi Lieutenant Governor’s address on Patiala House: From Palace to Seat of Justice, the book by former judge Poonam A. Bamba.
Its route from palace to courthouse was far from direct. Reporting on Bamba’s research describes its use as a British war room during the Second World War, followed by a chapter as offices for the World Health Organization.
When the Ballroom Became an Accounts Office
A particularly vivid recollection appears in the Association of Former WHO Staff Members’ April 2021 newsletter. Former staff member J. V. Perumal recalls WHO’s South-East Asia Regional Office occupying part of Patiala House from early 1950 until 1962.
The palace ballroom, complete with parquet flooring, housed the Finance, Budget and Accounts unit. When regional committee sessions required the room, staff moved out to work in a shamiana, or tent, behind the building.
Perumal also remembered the difficulty of making palace rooms comfortable offices. High ceilings complicated heating and cooling; in summer, staff supplemented room coolers with damp khus screens. These practical details bring the building to life more clearly than its dimensions alone. Imagine preparing accounts on a former dance floor, then carrying the work outside when a meeting took over.
Later, Patiala House accommodated the Delhi High Court before its district-court role. Today, the New Delhi District Court website describes a complex containing several buildings, courts and support offices. The historic house has become part of a much larger working institution.
The memories of its ballroom and royal rooms invite a different reading of a building usually associated with legal news. The change of use happened through many practical decisions, with each new occupant finding a way to work within spaces designed for another life.
5. Hyderabad House: Royal Reception Rooms Find a Diplomatic Role
Designed by Edwin Lutyens for Osman Ali Khan, the Nizam of Hyderabad, Hyderabad House was among the grandest princely residences in New Delhi. Its central dome, spreading wings and richly detailed interiors were designed for ceremonial hospitality.
The India Tourism Development Corporation’s account describes a butterfly-shaped building with a circular foyer, gardens, archways and a striking marble floor patterned with diamond shapes. European forms sit alongside Mughal motifs. It was a setting designed to make an arrival feel significant.
That purpose has continued in a different form. Under the Ministry of External Affairs, the building hosts visiting foreign leaders, official meetings and state banquets. ITDC has handled its catering and upkeep services since 1974.
A Cup of Tea on the Diplomatic Stage
One memorable scene took place on 25 January 2015, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama had tea in a garden gazebo here. The Barack Obama Presidential Library’s record of the visit identifies both the place and date.
It is a useful image to hold alongside the formal photographs of delegations and meeting tables. A residence built for a princely ruler could also provide a garden setting for a conversation between leaders of two modern democracies.
The building’s hospitality has therefore acquired a diplomatic purpose. Reception rooms, gardens and ceremonial approaches help shape how visitors are welcomed. When Hyderabad House appears in the news, the architecture around the handshake belongs to this much longer story.
What Their Changing Uses Tell Us About Delhi
Together, these buildings offer several versions of life after royalty. Jaipur House became a national art institution. Bikaner House regained a public cultural role through restoration. Baroda House and Patiala House became working administrative spaces, while Hyderabad House continued to receive distinguished guests under a different political system.
This is often called adaptive reuse: finding a new purpose for an existing building. The results are not identical. A gallery welcomes visitors; a railway office serves staff and official business; a diplomatic venue needs controlled access. Preserving a building does not automatically make every room publicly accessible.
The stories also show why good maintenance involves more than a fresh coat of paint. Bikaner House’s exhibition rules and the remembered challenges of WHO’s palace offices both point to the same practical question: how can an old building accommodate today’s work without losing what makes it distinctive?
Exploring Delhi’s Former Royal Residences
For an afternoon exploring this history, begin with Jaipur House and Bikaner House, where art provides a welcoming way into the buildings. Treat them as your main visits, with the other residences offering context for the surrounding neighbourhood.
At Jaipur House, give yourself time to move between the building and the art: pause outside before entering, notice the dome, then look at how the exhibition spaces differ. At Bikaner House, see which rooms are open and let the day’s programme guide the visit. A small exhibition can be a good reason to spend time in a room you might otherwise pass through.
Check the NGMA website and Bikaner House’s programme for current opening arrangements, exhibitions and any ticket requirements. Do not plan on entering Baroda House, Patiala House or Hyderabad House as part of a casual palace walk.
Then, the next time you pass a familiar government address near India Gate, look a little more closely. Its name may be the surviving clue to a royal household—and a very different Delhi.
If you would like help making sense of the city’s neighbourhoods, architecture and cultural details, explore Delhi Concierge’s city orientation.
Frequently Asked Questions
After the capital’s transfer to Delhi was announced in 1911, the plans for New Delhi included Princes’ Park around today’s India Gate hexagon. Rulers established residences near the ceremonial and political centre, giving buildings such as Jaipur House and Bikaner House their names.
Begin with Jaipur House, home to the National Gallery of Modern Art, and Bikaner House, which hosts exhibitions and cultural programmes. Check their official websites for current opening arrangements, ticket requirements and access to individual rooms before visiting.
These are working premises: a railway headquarters, a court complex and a diplomatic venue. They are not public palace museums. Any entry depends on the institution’s rules and permission, so do not plan on walking in as part of a sightseeing route.
Adaptive reuse gives an existing building a new purpose. These former royal residences now accommodate art, administration, courts and diplomacy. Their changing roles show how historic buildings can remain useful while retaining elements of their original architecture.
